Literary Glance: It by Stephen King

September 9, 2017

The movie It is getting some good reviews, and that almost surprises me. I remember the 1980s when almost every movie based on a Stephen King book would suck. Even though the Stanley Kubrick/Jack Nicholson version of The Shining is seen as a cult favorite now, back when it came out, most people thought it was too campy.

I wouldn’t say The Shining movie sucked, but it had its issues. I cringed at the “Heeeeeeeere’s Johnny” moment when I first saw it, while the rest of the audience was laughing. Too many kids today know “Heeeeeere’s Johnny!” from The Shining, but they don’t know who Johnny Carson is. At least they know “Heeeeeeere’s Johnny.”

Anyway, Cujo the movie wasn’t very good. Christine the movie was bleh. Children of the Corn? Haha!

I remember It was a decent TV mini-series from the early 1990s. I remember John Ritter was in it, but that’s about it which is fine because I don’t remember if I’ve even read It or not. It’s about time somebody made a good version of It. It deserves it, even if I don’t remember reading it.

Sometimes I read books from decades ago just to see if they’re as good as I remember them. I’d like to do that with It by Stephen King, but I don’t remember reading it. I had it in my house for a long time. I remember looking at it. I remember some friends talking about how great It was. But I don’t remember reading It.

I remember enough about The Stand to know that I’ve read it. I remember enough about The Shining to know that I’ve read it. But It? I don’t know.

I think It was the book that ruined clowns. That’s too bad. Before It, clowns were still kind of socially acceptable. They were annoying, but there wasn’t quite the universal hatred for them.

Back then before It, everybody hated mimes instead of clowns. Mimes were way worse than clowns. Mimes wore the…

I read It and I struggled with it for the very reason you’ve pointed out in the first sentence – he writes too much. The book could’ve been a lot shorter and just as good if he had just got to the point instead of overwriting. Having said that, we have to remember he was pretty stoned when he wrote It lol 🙂